The Association for Computational Linguistics North American Chapter

Summary ===========================================================
Best Time for NAACL?

  69 February/March/April/May
  53 during the summer
  52 September/October/November
  48 I have no preference

How Often Should NAACL Be Held?

 215 every year that there is no (international) ACL or COLING in North America

Preferred Venue?

  83 doesn't matter
  58 a university
  47 hotel and university
  35 a hotel

What Makes You Go?

 123 distance from other conferences
  70 low cost of venue

Conferences Attended:

 158 NAACL 2001 (Pittsburgh, June 2001)
 127 ANLP/NAACL 2000 (Seattle, June 2000)
  95 ACL 2001 (France, July 2001)
  42 ACL 2000 (Hong Kong, October 2000)
 

Comments on Best Time for NAACL =============================
For people depending on US Government funding,
the Sept. - Nov. time frame is too difficult to
arrange.
April/May would be best
don't care
Definitely not in the November-February period.
Late summer
Actually, my choice is 
all other times of hte year are full of conferences.
This would put the deadlines to some other times of 
the year. 
I think the important thing is to stagger paper
submission dates, so that they are not too close
together (ie, the NAACL and the ACL submit dates.)
It would be nice to stagger the conferences so as
not to be in direct competition. care must be
take though to make sure two NAACL conferences 
are not too close together.
Fall is also good
As a student, it is easier for me to get away 
when the semester is not in session.
Have it somewhere warm in February, it won't conflict with
any other conferences.
I would prefer it if the deadline for submissions was pushed to be
in January. I don't see any reason to worry about clashes with the main
ACL submission deadlines. This
can only improve the quality
and quantity of submissions, providing that there
is still time for the review process. Holding the
conference in the summer should improve attendance
of the conference. 
Spring break.
What really matters is when the submission deadline is.
Don't have the submission deadline during the
busiest time of the semester, like it is now.
The summer is the best time for academics...  There are a few other
windows of opportunities such as spring break, but they aren't nearly as good.
Conferences during the semester are very hard to
schedule with teaching.
not a hugely strong preference
hold these two conferences far apart from each other.
With May as least preferred.  Staggering the 
conferences in any way at all seems better
than not at all.
Go for spring break!
My real preference would be either spring or fall,
but I can't check both. I'd like NAACL to be farther
apart from the main ACL than next year.
Probably _not_ adjacent to ACL -- it's difficult
to be away for more than one meeting at a time.
During the school year is bad.  
If it's in the Spring, then paper submission 
deadlines are near the holidays.  I'd rather
have the conference in the fall, and paper
submission deadlines in the spring.
Jewish Holidays take up a whole month in September/October.
Meetings during the academic year are difficult for me to attend,
and meetings that require more than two weekdays (e.g. Monday-Tuesday 
or Thursday-Friday) are out of the question.
6 months apart would be ideal.
For people at universities, it is difficult 
to attend conferences during the academic year.
Another major factor is that the submission
deadline should be staggered with that of the
other NLP conferences. They often tend to lump
together...
I prefer May, when the semester has ended and the
summer hasn't begun yet.
Strong preference for avoiding the academic year.
I have no problem with having the two conferences
occur close together or even conflict with each
other.
As a grad student, I'm still taking and TAing classes 
all through the schoolyear; as a professor I will be 
teaching classes during the schoolyear.  Holding this 
major conference other than during the summer would be 
a royal pain (as it was last year, when it fell smack 
in the middle of exams).
Mid to late May, after most university terms have finished,
would be ideal.


Comments on How Often NAACL Should Be Held ==========
infrequently
every year
there may be too many CL-related conferences now -
it's hard to know which to go to, or who will be
where. Maybe some scheme of making sure that
no two years go by without a north american conference,
but putting the NAACL one in an off-time so that 
there might be 1.5 years between conferences while
there are annuals in Asia and Europe
There seem to be more conferences in CL than are warranted 
given the amount of forward movement in the field.
I think it should be held every year, regardless
of when/where ACL itself is held.  The reason for
that is that the main ACL conference is so far 
away that I will never be able to attend, since
I will generally not receive any reimbursement 
(unless by some miracle I actually have a paper
submitted/accepted).  So, I cannot afford to go
anywhere outside of the US.  Actually, I really
can't afford to go much of anywhere within the 
U.S. either.  Travel and lodging expenses are
generally so much that I cannot afford to
continually cover my own costs on my meager
stipend.
So, my vote would be every year in the U.S. (which
I do realize may not reflect the true makeup of
NAACL....).
Better yet -- have smaller regional meetings which
people like me could afford to go to more often,
like semiannually.
Nobody has the time or money to go to all of these.
But nobody wants to miss out on good research.
I think there are too many meetings.  I would urge 
NAACL not to compete with ACL.  We don't need a meeting 
in North America every year.  NAACL should do something 
different from the main ACL meeting, something more like 
the AAAI symposiums, for example.  I could see an annual 
meeting of the SIGS which would be more like the workshops, 
but I don't think it is right to have several ACL/Coling 
meetings every year on every continent.  That will reduce 
the international flavor of those meetings.
the above plus ALL non-COLING years
Not much of a choice here!
I am generally unhappy with the ACL/NAACL
split, assuming COLING is still active.
I would want to see COLING merged with ACL.
There is a plethora of conferences in the field. 
The quality of the conferences suffers as a result.
Unless experience from the first several years shows
there is not enough good papers submitted to justify it.
either biannually or annually - the decision 
should not be based on whether ACL is in NA or not
(in other words, NAACL should fill a niche that
is _not_ the North American-based 
alternative to ACL).
Having NAACL plus ACL or COLING all in North America 
in one year would be too much.
I see the motivation behind having a conference
in North America every year that ACL takes
place somewhere else, namely to allow people
to attend the conference if they wouldn't be able
to attend otherwise (because of distance and/or 
cost), but I also see the danger, namely that the 
community is split and only people with a large
travel budget will be able to really participate
in international exchange (by attending BOTH 
conferences). I would suggest monitoring how 
having yearly regional conferences affects 
attendance at the international ACL for a few
years and then re-consider the whole idea
of yearly regional conferences based on how
attendance developed.
I think the current slate of ACL, NAACL, EACL,
ANLP, EMNLP, etc. is much too full.  This is too
many conferences!  I realize that many in the U.S.
believe there simply must be an ACL conference 
in the U.S. each and every year, but I disagree.


Comments on Preferred Venue =========================
I like the reasearch focus of ACL.  Locating conferences
at hotels drives up the price and makes them less accessible
to students.  
if conference is in winter, perhaps no need 
for university (southern locations)

choose nice cities -- I'll only go to one
of EACL, NAACL, ACL or COLING.  I'll choose
based on city I want to visit.
I would like to see more inexpensive housing 
options for graduate students. I would also like 
to have some mechanism to help finding roommates,
to save on housing costs (perhaps some sort of 
bulletin board on the conference web page).

Would be nice to keep costs to participants down
and not be "hostage" to expensive hotels, e.g.,
at NAACL seattle, where memebers were urged to
defray organization's cost out of their pockets.
It is important to provide at least some inexpensive
options so that students with limited funding
can attend.
Well, if you get right down to it, I would 
certainly be way more comfortable in a hotel,
especially if it was the conference hotel.  But,
I've heard that past ACL meetings had student
housing available in nearby university settings.

I'm all for whatever will save students money so
that we can better afford to attend these things.
a hotel gives us more options
The point should be to keep costs down.  Hotels can 
be very expensive.  We should also avoid universities 
that charge hotel-like prices.  Be especially careful 
on things like coffee and AV equipment.  Some places 
give away the obvious things but soak you on everything
else.
prefer not to have the conference divided between
different sites
had more fun at U Maryland than in Seattle,
though both were well organized.
I would like there to be dorm-priced accomodations 
available at conferences to consider the less fortunate 
students or folks with limited budgets. Whether a university 
is involved to accomplish this doesn't matter, presumably 
a university would be the best way to accomplish this, 
and most universities seem to have nice nearby hotels, 
not the other way around.
I say a university because it is usually 
cheaper, and ACL at least had a tradition
of inexpensive conferneces.  However, 
universities which are not near major airports 
are not good choices.
A university is fine, as long as there are good hotel 
accommodations nearby, and a hotel is fine as long as 
its near a campus.  Even a resort area would be OK if 
there were good computing facilities available (internet, etc.).
The venue does not matter to me, but any site must consider 
student participation and thus provide reasonably economical 
accomodations.
I think the infrastructure of the location is 
very important. Ideally, both types of 
accomodation (dorms / hotel) should be within
a reasonable distance from the location of
the meetings, so that attendees have a choice 
as to where to stay.
I believe a priority should be making
the conference accessible to students.
But I also believe we need to start aiming
for more industry visibility especially in
the web technology community.
I find the university setting more conducive to academic 
conferences; they generally have nicer lecture halls with 
fold-out or permanent desks to take notes on.  Also, they 
are more likely to have cheap accomodations (dorms) for 
grad students and undergrads, enabling a much stronger 
student presence at the conference, which I think is very 
important.
A hotel is more convenient for faculty,
but then again a university is usually
cheaper for grad students


Comments on What Makes You Go? ================================
Depends more on my other committments (work, school)
and is not affected by conflict with ACL or cost.
More important: low cost of venue - most of the program
at a university.
Also not in conflict with other meetings that
I must attend
Neihter make a difference
Neither.  An interesting conference is most improtant.
dorm accomodations important (though not at present for me)
how about aiming for 6 months apart?
Content of the conference and 
not a weekend in the summer and lack of overlap 
with another conference
choose nice cities -- I'll only go to one
of EACL, NAACL, ACL or COLING.  I'll choose
based on city I want to visit.
Travel distance matters more than low cost of venue.
Neither. Less statistical NLP would increase my interest.
A very high cost (such as a Manhattan hotel) might keep me away
actually, more than 2 months away. Ideally, on the "other side of the year". 
Neither of these has much influence, although as
I mentioned above, having paper submission dead-
lines staggered is important.
NAACL should always be held during the summer
to avoid conflicts with the academic year.
A more diverse range of papers
Since I sincerely doubt that I will ever be able
to attend an international ACL meeting, unless it
was held nearby, the timing of the international
ACL meeting is irrelevant to me, at least at this
point in my academic career.
have it in a warm place
in an interesting city (e.g. New Orleans, Austin,
Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston, San Diego)
collocation with other major conferences
(AAAI, ML, CHI, Cog sci ...)
biggest cost is time and if both happen over
the summer, time away is time away.
I personally don't have a problem with cost, but I very 
much approve of efforts to keep costs down so that others 
who do have a problem with cost can attend.
I also don't like competing with other meetings, but I 
don't think that a month or two here or there addresses 
that issue sufficiently.  To avoid competition, the NAACL 
meeting has to be different from those other meetings in 
a substantial way, e.g., more like a collection of focused 
workshops than a standard ACL meeting.
None of the above. I will attend if I can afford
the time away from work. Other costs are comparatively
insignificant for me.
usually can't go abroad anyway, 
since most of the time I'm funding myself
For now, the cost is still important. If these conferences 
were held far apart, that would help with budgeting for both. 
I would not drop dorm accomodations, though.
The most important thing is if it's nearby
and doesn't conflict with classes.
The assumption here seems to be that given the choice between 
NAACL and an international ACL meeting, the choice by default 
will be the latter. Yes, perhaps, but why? Because int'l ACL 
draws on a larger basin of researchers?
Proximity to Seattle.
Paper submission deadline at least 3 or more months apart is even more
important than the actual meeting schedule!!
The meeting schedule is getting very cluttered,
but I'm not sure how to resolve priority
Two similar meetings shouldn't be held close together.
I presume the real question here is "Given that providing dorm 
accomodations forces conferences to be in the summer and given 
that we would prefer the NAACL conference not be on top of ACL, 
which is more important to you?"
The deadlines for the papers for ACL is apart from the deadlines 
and dates of the ACL 
Neither is a major factor.  I attend other non-ACL
non-COLING meetings (IEEE ICASSP, ICSLP) whose
timing determines whether I go to NA/ACL or not.
Not during teaching semesters
If this is meant to be an NA meeting 
when ACL is outside of NA, then it 
seems to me that it caters to those who will 
not go abroad for the ACL meeting.  So it 
shouldn't matter how close it falls to the date 
of ACL.
If it could be held in the same location
as ACL, either just before or after, I'd be more
likely to get funding to attend.
But note that I'm unlikely to attend both
in the same year in any case.  This year is
an exception.
Having it scheduled away from ACL just makes it break up 
the year more nicely; it doesn't really affect my going 
or not going.  Cheaper venue certainly makes me more likely 
to go, although honestly I'd probably go regardless.
Neither.


Comments on Conferences Attended ====================
Attended ACL/COLING '98 and ACL '99
Many researchers do not have international funds so it can be 
hard to attend international conferences.....
I plan to attend *one of* NAACL2001 or ACL2001,
but haven't yet decided which.
NAACL and ACL too close; may skip ACL
haven't decided between NAACL/ACL in '01.
Going overseas is too expense and too exhausting.
I will most likely attend only one of the events in 2001, and 
have not yet decided which one. 
Having conferences at an interesting site (e.g. Hong Kong, but 
not Milwaukee) always encourages me to attend.
I attend COLING this summer. Sometimes there
are too many conferences and/or workshops
I have to go to. sometimes the length of the
trip is too long (e.g., Hong Kong) and then I
don't go.
Wish I could afford the other two, but no way!
NAACL 2000 was *not* in June, it was in late
april early may (just before finals); hence
my absence.
I am very unlikely to attend ACL gatherings outside of the USA 
due to the cost. 
I haven't decided about next year yet.
I may already be in Europe in July, in which case
I will attend ACL-2001
The cost in time and money for traveling outside 
the country is presently too rich for my blood
for a general meeting.
COLING 2000
NAACL I will attend. ACL I hope to, depending on funding.
Not sure about ACL 2001 yet, maybe!
not sure about ACL 2001
I'm planning on attending one of NAACL 2001 and 
ACL 2001, but probably not both. Which one I attend
will depend on the program.
Maybe on NAACL2001 -- not quite sure yet.
I haven't definitely decided yet whether I will attend the 
two events in 2001 or not.
Depends on employer's approval & funding.
Maybe ACL 2001.
As for upcoming events: Depending also very
much on my trael budget.
There was a COLING in France last year - 
so there were 3 major conferences.
I seldom go outside North America for conferences.
I missed the NAACL deadline, so I'll submit to ACL
instead.


What Else Should the NAACL Board Do? ================
local tours
I would like to see it continue to reach out to
other disciplines and organizations within those
disciplines (such as CHI, CALICO, AMTA).
I would like to see contests of NLP software, comparable to 
computer chess tournaments, where the programming project 
does not get to choose the demo text.
1. Web Casting of computational linguistic meetings so those 
who can't attend can view presentations remotely
2. Web site promoting computational linguistic resources such 
as data sets and software
3. Internet accessible membership directory featuring free hosting 
of member's resumes and pointers to home pages, publications 
(perhaps in conjunction with NEC ResearchIndex)
computational linguistics courses at the summer LSA institute
workshop sponsorship
?
what's the deal with anlp?  i think it should not
exist as a separate conference, but always be folded
into naacl (which could change its name to something more
snappy than "nth Annual Conference of the North blablabla" --
maybe "Language, Computation, Technology XXXX").  the 2-conference,
one venue, two proceedings, one physical volume (with
indepndently numbered pages!) approach at NAACL00 
was confusing and bizarre.  so what if anlp is easier 
to get a paper in to (or make it more difficult). 
lines are blurry anyway.
North American educational activities.
Some recs on courses for Comp Ling, etc.,
would be nice.
Workshops on NLP
I'm under the impression that the (?NA)ACL
helps pay, at least partially, for the LSA
Summer Linguistics Institute. This is good
thing, keep up the good work.
Maybe sponsorship of topical workshops or SIG activities
perhaps regional, low cost get togethers, or 
liaisons between academic researchers, funders,
industry, and consumers of NL technology
A Summer School in computational/formal linguistics
More funding for students to attend the 
conferences -- even the ones that didn't
submit papers which were rejected.
An interactive mailing list, similar to LINGUIST,
might also be a good idea.
contacts with funding agencies
More 1-day tutorials or very short (2 day)
summer schools for people (non-students) new
to NLP
I would like the NAACL board to stop sponsoring the NAACL 
conference in its current form.  There are too many meetings.  
It isn't fair to the internationalization of the ACL that 
the NAACL meeting undermine that very admirable goal.  The 
NAACL should do something different that doesn't undermine 
the efforts to internationalize the ACL, which the ACL has 
to do if it is going to grow beyond a small regional conference.
ballot design
I like meeting with tha ANLP Conference
A publication listing linguistic/NLP resources
(e.g., parsers, taggers, lexicons, extractors)
that are available to the research and development
community.  This should include both commercial
and non-commercial resources.
Can't think of any now.
sponsor a professionally organized web site for 
ACL/NAACL -- the current one seems weak.
Perhaps thematic summer workshops, like the one on SMT 
organized at JHU in summer of '99. 
Student scholarships (if the Association is rolling in money)
I'm hard-pressed to think of things that would be
appropriate for NAACL that aren't also appropriate
for ACL.  Perhaps a "speaker bureau" of individuals
ready to comment for the press on technology 
issues -- CL visibility is growing.
More outreach: to the press, TV, the US and Canadian Governments 
(NSF, etc.), etc.  To do this, NAACL should set up a body of 
people qualified to present the various interests of the 
Association, to whom we can refer journalists, etc. 
Some form of participation at the Summer Linguistics Institute 
put on by LSA might be nice, in order to forma  working relationship 
with LSA and achieve some exposure of NAACL to LSA attendees.
a proper student session which is held
concurrently with the main session
(not a separate student session workshop which
is held before the main session)
Not sure, but additional activities should be things that 
ACL doesn't provide (or doesn't provide adequately for 
North American members).
Perhaps hosting a more complelte website with information 
about conferences, papers, academic departments, etc.
joint workshops with other societies
Workshops, annual symposia (similar to AAAI but of course, 
concentrating on language)
outreach to academic institutions -- increasing
awareness of computational linguistics as a field
and the types of job opportunities available to
people with these types of skills.
I would like the board to consider trying to keep
the cost of activities during the conference as 
low as possible. In particular, the main event 
at NAACL 2000 (science center, I think?) was 
prohibitively expensive for students to attend
(and probably researchers with small travel 
budgets, such as those at 4-yr colleges).
I think it's very important to ensure that 
students are able and encouraged to participate
in all NAACL/ACL events!
More intensive student workshops!  I would like my
students to learn parsing from Charniak, sense
disambiguation from Yarowsky, statistical MT from
Knight, ... the student workshops are a good venue
for achieving a first order approximation to this.
Annual NAACL beach party and barbecue on some
summer weekend.
To offer student scholarships, eventually combined 
with a volunteer program (like AAAI does)
We are a community that is extremely relevant
in today's business world, yet most of them have 
never heard of us!  We need much greater outreach.